President-elect Donald Trump is "furious" with top adviser Kellyanne Conway after she slammed the idea of Mitt Romney potentially being named secretary of state, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough reported Monday morning.
Scarborough said that Conway could be frustrated because she has not yet been offered a job in the coming administration.
"Kellyanne doesn't have a job yet, and she's angry about that," he said. "She hasn't been offered the job she wants. No, she is. I can report that and so she's striking out. She's not in any of the meetings where these decisions are being made, and she's angry about that. At the same time, you don't go out and attack the vice president-elect because you're mad at Reince Priebus."
Bloomberg's Mark Halperin said that going after Romney in such a public forum is "unprecedented" for a top adviser.
Conway had warned in an interview Sunday that Trump supporters would feel "betrayed" if the president-elect named Romney as his secretary of state. Romney is reportedly a leading candidate for the post, causing a divide within Trump's transition team with some who would prefer the job to go to a loyalist like Rudy Giuliani rather than someone who openly opposed Trump's presidential bid.
"But look, Romney is not dead for this job because there are very senior people in the transition who are strategizing about how they can make this happen still," Halperin said on MSNBC's Morning Joe panel. "But this issue of an apology is front and center, and I don't think Romney is going to want to apologize the way some Trump supporters are saying are the price for being considered."
Columnist Mike Barnicle then asked Scarborough if he really thinks Conway believes what she told Sunday shows about Romney.
Scarborough emphasized that Conway made the comments on her own free will, without the support of the transition team. He added that Conway went "rogue."
"On her own," Scarborough said. "Let me be very clear here: Not only has there been reporting from, like, the top of the organization, three or four sources at the top of the organization but everybody around that incident said she went completely rogue and Donald Trump was furious yesterday that she would take that upon herself to keep attacking Mitt Romney."
Earlier in the segment, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said that two sources were able to confirm to MSNBC that Trump was "furious" with Conway and that they were "baffled" by the comments.